British and French Sources of American Constitutionalism

This is a Reading List based upon a Liberty Fund Conference on “British Sources of American Constitutionalism.”

British and French Sources of American Constitutionalism

Guide to the Readings

Editions used:

See also:

For additional reading see:

Session I: John Locke on Ends of Politics and the Preservation of Liberty

John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Thomas Hollis (London: A. Millar et al., 1764).

Second Treatise:

Session II: John Locke on Limited Government.

John Locke, Two Treatises of Government, ed. Thomas Hollis (London: A. Millar et al., 1764).

Second Treatise:

Session III: Trenchard and Gordon on Liberty, Law, and the Essentials of Free Governments.

John Trenchard and Thomas Gordon, Cato’s Letters, or Essays on Liberty, Civil and Religious, and Other Important Subjects. Four volumes in Two, edited and annotated by Ronald Hamowy (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1995).

Session IV: Forms of Government: The Nature, Principle, and Laws of Republics, Monarchies, and Despotisms as Envisioned by Montesquieu.

Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 1.

Session V: Montesquieu and Paine on the English Constitution.

Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 1.

Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 3: Persian Letters.

  • Persian Letter 104, “On the principles of government in England”

Thomas Paine, The Writings of Thomas Paine, Collected and Edited by Moncure Daniel Conway (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1894). 4 Vols.

Session VI: Hume’s View on the Principles of Government, Factions, the Ideal Commonwealth, and the True Sources of English Liberty.

David Hume, Essays Moral, Political, Literary, edited and with a Foreword, Notes, and Glossary by Eugene F. Miller, with an appendix of variant readings from the 1889 edition by T.H. Green and T.H. Grose, revised edition (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund 1987).